Reform and Orthodoxy: divided house of Judaism

Colin Jantjies

By pointing fingers at Reform Jews and dismissing them as worthy of the fires of Gehinnom, you have fallen into that sanctimonious trap so common among members of your sect, blinded by a belief of right and a sense of superiority.

I’m sorry to disturb your comfort zone and burst your bubble but you are wrong. If our patriarchs were all alive today, stretching from Abraham to Malachi, then none would recognise what we Jews are practising. Indeed they would be horrified to observe what we sectarians believe in and have the chutzpah to accuse others of.

This is because both Orthodoxy and Reform Judaism are equally and ironically modern versions of their time. Judaism as she is presently known, has gone through many evolutions but also two bloody revolutions. The first occurred under the Syrian demigod Antiochus Epiphanes, from where we got the Chanukah story; the last occurred when Rome, against its own foreign policy, decided to sack Jerusalem.

Jewish commentary around these two events is mired in myth-making and controversy. I believe it’s a rather cock-eyed version which had eventually made it into the books. We’ve all been taught that the authorities of the Second Temple-era were purists or tzaddikim. This is what Josephus wrote and subsequent rabbis elaborated on.

But with all due respect to the Jewish historian, he was a compulsive liar and a charlatan. The internecine conflict of 66 – 70 CE was entirely a sectarian war between reformists and traditionalists. It was the “priestly” caste or Greek reformers who had been ringing in the religious changes – the same people whose ancestors had aligned themselves with Antiochus in earlier times.

Since Josephus was born into and belonged to this party, this “priest” naturally took it upon himself to cook and flavour historical facts to suit his party’s own cause.

Perhaps you recognise them? These reformers were Roman lackeys and when the real traditionalists (the common people) started to revolt, it was first against them that they directed their anger and frustrations – only afterwards against Rome.

It was not only Josephus whom the people accused of traitorous conduct, but also his entire progressive party. Of course, after Rome had almost destroyed the Judeans, there had to be a faction left who would rewrite Jewish history.

How interesting that the ones trusted with this mammoth task were those Jews feted and protected by Rome. Alas, how things have changed and yet remain the same! And the moral of this lesson: People who live in glass houses…

Rugby, Cape Town